Is it because of the fate reserved for the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh since the lightning military operation orchestrated on September 19 by the Baku authorities under the eye of international actors who have remained largely silent that the Boghossian Foundation has programmed this exhibition? In any case, it is aware of the danger posed by a conflict of at least thirty years that the company Iconem, specializing in immersive imaging of heritage sites in danger, launched a campaign there in the summer of 2018. digital readings. Accompanied by the artist Pascal Convert to carry out 3D scans of Armenian monasteries built from the 9th century onwards, the French start-up's team focused in particular on those of Geghard, Haghpat and Sanahin. It is therefore these architectures that technology makes it possible to reconstruct without tension, while Convert set about transferring to scale the complex ornamentation of khachkars, standing stones with crosses which mark out these sites, highlighting their scriptural dimension. While tradition has it that the Armenian alphabet of Mesrop Mashtots was dictated to him by God himself, this importance of writing is found in rare liturgical objects and manuscripts from the Armenian Museum of France as well as in the work of the contemporary artist Mekhitar Garabedian, while the photographs of Antoine Agoudjian describe an Armenia of ritual and the sacred.

Extract from the article by Tom Laurent published in No. 109 of the Art Absolument magazine. Published on January 11, 2024.

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